February 13, 2026 - newsy!

 Well...

this week's been a blur.

Ian and Kamdyn...

my son and daughter in law, bought a home (built in 1964) and a 8.5 acre property. Of course the house needs work, but the property is exceptional and just what they wanted: a small hobby farm to do their thing. It's closer to us (a bit) too, in Solsberry, Indiana - so that's nice!

They closed on the house last Friday, they take possession today and they will begin gutting the house Monday, so....

we are going to tour everything Saturday. 

I'm so proud of them! It's going to be a lot of work and it makes my back ache and want to fall into bed thinking about what they are going to have to do....

but they are young and I am old. So there's that 😂

Miss Cora...

is growing like a weed! I can almost see the brain synapsis growing, making connections. She's getting more independent too...independent play...independent thoughts (ha ha!)...

She's talking quite a bit too...

and she's able to tell me pretty much what she wants, needs, thinks she needs and wants....

One wonderful thing that she does every day is:

FaceTime Poppy at work and eat lunch with him:

Not a very flattering picture of Keith...

but surely one of the most heart warming things that I am honored to watch every day is the dynamics and love between Poppy and Cora. She loves him to bits. Me....well she likes me, but I'm the old bat that takes care of her and changes her diaper when she doesn't want it changed, corrects her when she's wrong and makes her take a nap. 

She absolutely LOVES her Poppy.

Here she is yesterday after her lunchtime FaceTime with Poppy...

Homemade yogurt "ice cream" pops...

she prefers actual ice cream, but granny is trying to follow Mommy's rules better.

BUT today is FRIDAY and that's a "anything goes" day! HURRAY!

So we will be screaming for ice cream come 11 o'clock!

I haven't done any stitching or crafting so far this week BUT....

I did work on church flower work. It's honestly one of the most time consuming things I have ever done for the church - plan out the year of flowers making sure that I have all feasts, solemnities and seasons covered beautifully to celebrate our Lord in his house. 

Here's "memorial" flower contributions...

parishioners may choose a weekend to donate money toward the altar flowers in remembrance of a loved one or in honor of a loved one:

This book represents 52 weeks of the church year...

(this is my copy - I fill in names when weeks are taken)

We have one more week for flowers then it is a bare church for Lent (until Laetare Sunday) where we will celebrate nearing the end of lent and approach of Holy Week.

And since Lent approaches quickly, I took 6 hours and made my Easter Flower order and went over and over (AND OVER) to make sure before I will place it next week that all weeks of the Easter Season (8 weeks) from the Altar of Repose on Holy Thursday evening to the joy of the Resurrection and all the way through Pentecost on the 8th and final week of the Easter season is full and filled with beautiful flowers!

During those 8 weeks we have significant weekends: May Crowning, Mother's Day, First Communion....so it is important for me to remember those weekends and make sure flower colors are appropriate and the amount of flowers/pots I arrange is appropriate.

Then I personally extend the season 2 more weeks with more than typical amount of flowers for:

Trinity Sunday and Corpus Christi

the previous Flower Lady didn't really acknowledge these feast day with arranging and purchasing more flowers. But to me....they should be honored lushly - so I made the executive decision, since this is my 3rd year of doing the church flowers - that I would incorporate lush floral arrangements for these two feast days. Where I grew up Corpus Christi was a HUGE celebration in the church with the First Communicants (that had already had first communion a few weeks prior) would put on their First Communion outfits - suits for the boys, dresses and veils for the girls - and would march into church carrying large armfuls of flowers to offer Jesus. My current church doesn't do that - they do something similar on the May Crowning weekend - but I want the church to shine with profuse multicolored flowers on Corpus Christi - so I will make it so 😊

I guess I do have some crafting news....

I bought like 8 background fabrics for the Princess Parade Quilt that went with or means something to each princess that I will be making....

that was another $100.

This quilt will be $1K before I get it done 😂

At least I'll do the quilting myself so everything from start to finish will be done by my hands...

but the materials alone...the cost has been something else!

However...

I believe I will have enough material left over to do a second quilt for Maisy (or another grand-daughter, if Maisy isn't into princesses...she could be into dump trucks for all we know and granny would make her a dump truck quilt 😁) 

The backgrounds I bought, I think will be perfect! I'll save them for when I do the blocks to share then.

So that's it for the newsy notes for this week...

I get Monday off - for President's Day - so it's a 3 day weekend for me 🥳

Saturday we will spend the majority of it with Ian and Kamdyn, 

but that leaves Sunday and Monday to do some serious something in the crafting department.

Until my next visit....

Happy St. Valentine's Day 💓

and Happy Weekend to all of you!